


Adventures in Bad Timing

by magicandlight



Series: The States [25]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M, I'm Bad At Titles, Rewrite, so much unnecessary drama, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 10:17:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15749670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: In which Ginny and Scott have terrible timing, and it takes them nearly three centuries to get together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rewrite of MD/VA

**September 17, 1739**  
Alfred names her after the Queen, because she's already sort of named after her.

She finds it fascinating that both Virginia and Elizabeth are names from the same person.

Adela comes after Elizabeth and Wes, and she's named after a queen too, sort of.

But Scott comes next and explains that he's Maryland like Henrietta Maria and Scott Henry like her too, and Elizabeth decides that they're the same in regards of names and that they should be friends. 

••••••••••••••  
**May 3, 1745**  
Alfred is exhausted, and Scott can't bring himself to wake him up for something as trivial as a nightmare.

He remembers the religious conflicts that lead to captured cities every time he closes his eyes.

He kicks the covers away and gets up.  
••••  
"Liz?"

Strawberry perks up, raising her head from where she lays on Liz's pillow above her head.

"Elizabeth?"

Liz frowns as she wakes up, eyes blinking tiredly. "Mare?" 

Scott smiles a little at the nickname. He hates being called Mary, but he can tolerate Mare. "Can I sleep in here?"

Liz nods, scooting over and putting her back to him. Scott climbs in beside her, turning so that his back is pressed to hers.

••••••••••••••  
**August 11, 1754**  
She doesn't figure it out until she's older, until she and Wes are preparing to leave for Williamsburg.

It's a moment where Scott is helping her pack and he looks over and  _smiles_  and it hits her like a lightning strike.

 _Oh_ , she thinks.

(Wes gives her a knowing look later. "So you've finally figured it out.")

••••••••••••••  
**December 9, 1775**  
The revolution is something that burns at her heart, that gives her headaches as it fights with the instinct to stay loyal.

It scares her a little- how easily and quickly her accent warps, the southern drawl she had mixing with something distinctly English.

Wes goes off to fight because he is the braver Virginia, and Ginny stays behind in Richmond and works as a seamstress at a job she only got because they thought she was an orphan and beautiful and one day she would go and marry a nice boy from town.

She'll be gone in a few years, like always, before they start to realize she hasn't aged.

Scott comes, and tries to recruit her for the revolution, but he doesn't try very hard.

Then there is Daniel, who knew exactly what to say to get under her skin.

Barely a month later, she finds herself in Wes's uniform racing to a battle, urging Pepper to go  _faster_.

••••••••••••••  
**August 27, 1776**  
The Battle of Long Island puts things in perspective.

This is not a game, this is a war, and people are dying.

The colonies realized  _they_ could die. Maybe permanently.

••••••••••••••  
**August 30, 1776**  
Ginny kisses him, and he knows exactly how much of a bad idea this is.  
••••  
The next morning when the brightness finally wakes Scott up, he realizes what he's done.

 _Oh no_.

His best friend is laying on the cot next to him, completely and utterly naked. The thin military blanket is draped over her stomach, and her arm is draped over her chest. Her chest rises and falls in time with her breathing, and she looks completely at ease as she sleeps. Elizabeth's hair, shorter than Scott's at the moment, is limp with sweat and hangs in untamed curly tangles.

 _Fuck_. The night before comes crashing back, what they had done. He must have cursed out loud because Elizabeth begins to stir, face scrunching up as she wakes. She sits up, rubbing at her eyes. The blanket that had been wrapped around her falls to her hips, and Scott desperately tries to keep his eyes off of her chest.

There a brief flicker of pain across Elizabeth's face as she shifts to face him. Scott remembers the blood and Ginny's nails digging into his shoulders and how very still he'd kept until Ginny had blinked open her eyes and told him to keep going.

 _Fucking hell_.

Ginny recognizes the mixture of emotions on his face, guilt and remorse flashing in his eyes. Her hands tilt his head up until he's looking her in the eye. "Scott, it's okay."

"It's not, Lizzy, you deserve better than losing your virginity on a military cot in the middle of an encampment."

"And you don't?" Her sea green eyes are wide, searching.

Scott keeps his mouth shut. He won't win this.

Ginny gets up, leaving the blanket. Scott averts his eyes. She's silent as she collects her clothes, putting them back on.

Scott stiffens as she leans towards him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you." She whispers and leaves.

••••••••••••••  
**September 1, 1776**  
"Okay, what's up with you?"

Ginny looks over at her brother. "I don't know what you mean."

Wes gives her a look. "...You're weirdly perky. And you keep staring off into space, which is sort of hypocritical, because you yelled at Daniel for daydreaming during a meeting just last month."

Ginny shrugs. "Nothing's up with me."

••••••••••••••  
**September 2, 1776**  
Gin's acting like there's nothing wrong, like he didn't take advantage of her.

She was supposed to be his best friend, and he can't stop feeling guilty every time he looks at her. Scott can't stop hating the fact that if given a choice, he'd do it all over again.

Washington writes him a letter for Jeremiah O'Brien when Scott asks.

He almost feels bad about not telling Gin, but it's for the best.

He needs space.

••••••••••••••  
**December 1776**  
She spends December in the Baltimore house with the rest of the South for Christmas, while the Northerners get to go and fight with Washington.

She keeps hoping for a letter that never comes.

••••••••••••••  
**July 19, 1777**  
Scott doesn't write Ginny. Not a single letter.

He wrote Alfred- maybe because he knew Alfred would go hunt him down to make sure he was alive if he didn't, but there was never a single letter to her.

And it  _hurt._  It hurt and she was angry even though she didn't want to be.

And perhaps, that was why the thing with Will happens, out of some misguided attempt to get over Scott already and be done with it.

••••••••••••••  
**July 23, 1777**  
"Hey, Liz." Scott says.

She should be mad at Scott- he hadn't talked to her since September.

Instead, she smiles. "Hey, Scott. I missed you."

She can't be mad when he's hugging her. "I missed you too." He whispers into her hair.

••••••••••••••  
**October 19, 1781**  
They all spend the revolution running across the colonies, trying to be with their men as much as possible and fight as many battles as they can.

It all ends in Yorktown.  
••••  
They're all drunk on victory after the surrender.

The New Englanders are screaming Yankee Doodle Dandy at the top of their lungs, and honestly, Scott has no idea where the rest of them are.

Liz is with him, grinning because they've finally won the war, and Scott wants to kiss her.

The realization hits him like a bucket of ice water, dimming the joy.

He shoves that into a box, and then locks it away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virginia and Elizabeth come from Elizabeth I. Del's middle name is Maria for Maria Eleonora of Sweden. Maryland and Scott's middle name (Henry) comes from Henrietta Maria of France.


	2. Chapter 2

••••••••••••••  
 **September 3, 1792**  
Abigail is a tiny baby, and out of all of the states, she seems to like Ginny and Scott best.

Alfred says it's probably because they're the ones who gave up land for her.

Scott had been worried that he and Gin were going to grow apart, but Abby brings them back together.

••••••••••••••  
 **May 15, 1793**  
Ginny's there when Abby learns to walk, Abby's tiny fist clutching Ginny's skirts as she toddles after her, and she was there when she said her first word, and she thinks she just might understand what Alfred meant about how he loved them all from the moment he met them.

••••••••••••••  
 **January 6, 1794**  
"Mare?" Abby asks as she shakes the teenaged state from his sleep. Her blue eyes are wide as she clutches her rag-doll, her blanket draped over her like a cloak.

"Abbs? What's up?" Scott asks as he rubs his eyes. Al had to go somewhere, and he'd left Scott and Gin in charge of Abby for the next few days.

"I had a bad dream and Ginny isn't in her room!" She says in a rush of words.

"....what?"

"Elizabeth isn't in her room and I'm scared!" Scott grins at the way she says  _Elizabeth_  so that it sounds like _Lizzy-beth_. Scott shakes his head and picks up the little girl. "Then let's go find her, Abby."  
••••  
Ginny is asleep on the couch, it turns out. Paperwork is scattered on the couch around her, and Scott just shakes his head.

Scott sighs. "Abby, I have to pick up Ginny so I can put her in her bed."

The girl nods.

"That means you have to get down."

"Oh."

Ginny's surprisingly light. Scott frowns. She had been working through meals lately, a habit he isn't pleased with. Abigail held on to the hem of Scott's shirt as they go through the house to Virginia's room.

They're halfway up the stairs when Elizabeth stirs. Scott pauses, Ginny nuzzles her face into his shoulder.

Scott keeps walking until he gets to Ginny's room. The door's open, no doubt because of Abigail.

He sets her down gently and pulls the pale blue quilt up around her. Abby clambers up beside her and curls up under the quilt beside her sister.

Scott shakes his head and turns to leave, only to be stopped by a hand on his wrist.

Ginny's clearly dead tired, but still manages to mumble out: "Why don't you stay?"

Scott shakes his head  _no_.

Ginny looks at him. "You can deal with Abby in the morning if you stay."

She did look like she could use the rest, and if he stayed, he could be the one to get up with Abby in the morning.

Scott sighs. "Fine."

Ten minutes later, the two states were asleep, a district snuggled between them.

••••••••••••••  
 **July 9, 1795**  
Wes is the one who points out that Abby looks like them.

Most of the other states saw the golden hair and cerulean eyes and thought she looked like Al.

Wes had grown up with Ginny though. Abby had loose curls and a light dusting of freckles, and if her hair was lighter and her eyes were a little greener, she'd look exactly how Liz did when they were young.

Instead, she had golden hair and cerulean eyes. Like Scott.

Ginny isn't sure what to say to that, so she doesn't say anything.

••••••••••••••  
 **July 4, 1800**  
Ginny's sitting with Scott on the porch the first time she works up the nerve to tell him how she feels.

It's the fourth and everyone's come down to celebrate Al's birthday and Ginny really should go stop the Carolinas from spiking the lemonade but instead she's sitting beside Scott on the porch.

She swallows. "Um. Scott, I-"

There's a crash and a shout and Scott gets up to figure out what it is.

Later, he'll ask her if she was going to say something and she'll shake her head no.

••••••••••••••  
 **August 24, 1814**  
They go to war with England again, and none of them ever expected  _this_.

••••••••••••••  
 **August 25, 1814**  
Ginny is sobbing and Scott has no idea how to comfort her because it's  _Abby_.

Ginny keeps vigil over Abby, sitting beside her, too afraid to even touch her because of the burns.

Scott brings her food and it sits untouched on the dresser.

••••••••••••••  
 **August 26, 1814**  
Abby coughs up live embers and blood, and Ginny cuts all her curls off when she goes to brush it and realizes parts of it have melted together and dried with ashes.

The doctors come later, after lunch, and Ginny sits with Abby as they wash the wounds out and then put cover them with turpentine oil and finally bandage them.

Ginny sits with Abby long after the doctors have left, all day and then through the night.

••••••••••••••  
 **August 27, 1814**  
Wes brings her a cup of tea and an apple and Ginny chokes them down to keep him from worrying.

He doesn't look like he believes her when she tells them she's okay so she pastes on a half-smile for him.

••••••••••••••  
 **August 28, 1814**  
It had been four days.

And Ginny hadn't eaten, or slept, or even moved from her spot.

Scott knows she's worried and grieving- they all are. He understands how Gin feels because he'd been right there with her when Abby had said her first word, taken her first steps. He'd been there for all the times they'd babysat.

That doesn't mean she can just stop taking care of herself.  
••••  
On a normal day, Ginny would have kicked his ass for this, but on a normal day, he wouldn't have to resort to picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder.

She elbows him sharply in the side. "Put me down."

"Nope."

She elbowed him again. "Scott."

Scott took one of his hands off her to open up her bedroom door, and then crossed across her room in a few steps. He dropped her onto her bed. "I'm not going to sit around and watch you kill yourself. You need to sleep."

Ginny scowled at him and spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm fine."

"You're not."

She tried to get around him and Scott grabbed her and dragged her back down.

Scott locked his arms around her, tossing a leg over hers.

Ginny elbowed him in the ribs for his trouble. "Scott, let me go."

Her voice was a warning tone she usually reserved for younger territories and stupid siblings. Scott ignored it.

" _Scott!_ "

"Just stop it. You're exhausted and starving. You're just exhausting yourself more."

••••••••••••••  
 **August 29, 1814**  
Ginny's asleep with her head against his chest when Scott wakes up, and for a moment he can't remember how they got there.

It comes back in a rush: Abby, Ginny refusing to do anything, forcing her to get some sleep.

He should have done this the very first day. He shouldn't have let it get so bad.

Scott shoves that thought away. It was too late for that now.

He looked at Ginny and winced at the way the delicate bones of her wrists stuck out on the hand tangled in his shirt.

Scott resolved to make her eat something when she woke up.  
••••  
Ginny wakes up afternoon, but Scott isn't surprised about that.

Her eyes are bleary when she finally opens them.

"If I get up to get food, are you going to go somewhere?"

After a moment, Ginny shakes her head.

Scott untangles himself and heads downstairs.  
••••  
He digs out one of the trays and sits it on the countertop while he tries to remember how Gin drinks her tea.

It'd changed from when they were colonies: he knew she used less sugar now, but he had no idea how much milk she put in, or even which type he should make.

Scott sighs and leaves the kettle to boil as he goes to find the meat pastries that were made for lunch.

When he comes back, West is fiddling with the kettle, the jar of tea leaves beside him.

Wes glances up. "It's for Liz, right?"

Scott nods, and Wes continues making the tea without hesitation.

Scott sets the meat pastries down on the tray and digs two pears out of the basket on the table.

After a moment of consideration, he grabs a few slices of bread and one of the jars of fruit preserves. If all Gin had eaten in days was an apple, then she probably wouldn't be able to eat the pastries.

Wes deems the tea done and passes Scott a mug of it.  
••••  
Ginny's sitting up when he comes back.

She takes the mug of tea first, her hands wrapped around it.

Scott waits a few moments, hoping she'll eat without prompting.

He nudges her when she just keeps sipping on the tea. "Gin, you have to eat."

She sighs, looking over the tray. She makes a face at the pastries, and he's glad he realized she probably wouldn't be able to eat them and brought other stuff.

She snags one of the pears and pushes the pastries toward Scott.

They eat in silence, and when Scott sees that Ginny's finished her pear, he opens up the jar of preserves and slathers a piece of bread with them.

He offers it to her. "Just a few bites? Please."

"Fine."

••••••••••••••  
 **August 30, 1814**  
They're woken up by the screams, and Ginny realizes what they are before Scott is even fully awake.

Abby is screaming and panicked and Ginny is yelling to get the bandage off her eyes and Alfred finally does.

Pale, slightly milky blue eyes stare blankly, unseeingly, and Abby sobs. "I can't see.  _I can't see!_ "

Alfred's face drops, and Ginny falls to her knees.

••••••••••••••  
 **November 1814**  
Alfred moves Abby to Philadelphia in the hopes of familiarity.

They move her room down to the first floor.

Ginny misses the clutter and mess of Abby's old room. There weren't any books or toys or clothes left out, not when Abby could trip over them. Her dresses had to be hemmed so she didn't trip over those.

Ginny knits caps for her head until her hair grows back, worried about her catching colds. She makes her gloves to cover up the burns scarring her hands after too many people stare.

••••••••••••••  
 **November 30, 1819**  
Abby's sight comes back over the span of a November five years later.

First, it's just light and shadows in one eye. Then both. Then smudges of color in one eye, and then color in both.

And finally, she can see, even if's blurry for a few days until it clears completely.

••••••••••••••  
 **July 2, 1826**  
"Ah. Miss Elizabeth. I saw your brother not too long ago." Thomas Jefferson gives her a smile. "He told me you had recently graduated college. Congratulations, Elizabeth."

She smiles at her former president. "I heard you won't be making it to the Fourth of July celebration." Her voice goes mock-chastising. "Thought I told you that you weren't allowed to get sick before then."

Jefferson laughs. "Still play the violin, Elizabeth?"

"Always." She tells him.

"Good girl." He pats the top of her head, and she knows he wishes he could still play. He had broken his wrist in 1786, and his playing had never been the same. It wasn't fair that she hadn't aged but a year the entire time she had known him. "Go fetch my violin, and play me something."   
••••  
The slaves and family members of Monticello alike stopped to listen as the bright notes of Vivaldi's Winter echoes throughout the halls.   
••••  
Thomas Jefferson dies two days later, but Elizabeth doesn't find out for three more days.

•••••••••••  
 **December 3, 1827**  
Ginny shows up to the meeting late, with an angry red flush over her face.

"What's wrong?"

"Martha sold his violins. She knew that I was going to buy them, and she sold them anyway."

"Martha? Who's Mart- oh, you mean little Patsy Jefferson."

"Her name's actually Martha, you know. But yes, Jefferson daughter."

"Oh." They'd already sold Jefferson's violins? Elizabeth had learned to play on those violins. "Who bought them?"

"Some man. Sent them to Boston, but I already asked Sam and she hasn't heard anything." Ginny seems to slump slightly. "Martha said he was sending them to London soon."

•••••••••••  
 **October 5, 1828**  
Prussia curses under his breath as he flipped the collar of his coat up.

Why did he have to become so attached to America's brats?

When Scott had sent him a letter enclosed with a good amount of money practically begging to go to London and buy a violin that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, he hadn't been able to refuse.

"Pr- Gilbert?" His head snaps up, scarlet eyes locking with emerald.

"Arthur." Well, that would make things easier. It was always easier to find something when you had the personification of the land it was on helping you. Plus, he had been meaning to get drinks with England for a while.

England fell into step beside him. "What brings you to London?"

"I'm looking for a violin. Recently imported from Boston, Cremona...." Honestly, Prussia had only a vague idea about what a Cremona violin was. He was more of a flute player.

Arthur thinks for a moment. "I may have heard something about it. Come on."

•••••••••••  
 **December 24, 1828**  
Ginny stares at the opened box in front of her. Jefferson's violin, the one she had thought was lost across the ocean, gleams. Scott had gotten it polished and the strings tuned.

Scott shifts his weight to the other foot. "Do you like it?"

"How?" Her voice is small.

Scott mutters something about favors as he watches her reaction. "You do like it, right?"

"I love it."


	3. Chapter 3

**March 5, 1830**  
"What do you think?" Elizabeth asks as she finishes undoing all the rollers in her hair. It falls around her face in perfect corkscrew curls.

Sera looked at her in the mirror. "You look pretty. You did your hair like that for Scott, right?"

Ginny choked on air. "What? No, no, of course not!"

"Mm-huh. Sure."  
••••  
"Hey." Ginny smiled at him, and he tried not to stare at her mouth, at the inviting red lipstick.

Scott doesn't notice the disappointment that flickered across Ginny's face when he stutters out an excuse as to why he was leaving.

Scott leans against the porch railing, his cherry-red face in his hands, and wonders how he missed the fact that his best friend was as pretty as the other girls.

••••••••••••••  
 **July 26, 1833**  
Wes doesn't know whether to be happy or not that Liz has thrown herself into her Southern Belle stage.

On one hand, she stopped moping around about Scott, who had made a habit of avoiding her (sometimes his sister was so oblivious). On the other, she rarely showed any emotion besides smiling.

Crying became unladylike, just like wearing pants and fighting with brothers. She got quieter, and she spent more time applying makeup- she had never cared about makeup before.

Wes couldn't shake the feeling that his sister wasn't as happy as she had been before.

••••••••••••••  
 **April 17, 1843**  
Scott hadn't been to see either of the Virginias in forever. Partially because he couldn't stop that pang of  _want_ when he saw Elizabeth, and you can't see Wes without seeing his sister since they lived together. He wasn't going to ruin their friendship because of a stupid crush. So what if Ginny might actually be pretty? A few months ago he'd been trying to chat up a completely disinterested Adela.

Still, he liked hanging around both of them, even if Ginny had gotten a little carried away with her southern belle stage. (Sam and Brooke had started avoiding her somewhat.)

Elizabeth wasn't home when he stopped in to see Wes.

The more western half of Virginia let him in quickly, trying to keep the four dogs from escaping. "Liz is out getting food, I think."

Wes shushes the barking dogs.

One dog sniffed him, seemed to decide he wasn't a threat and went to go lay down on its bed. The other nipped at his legs as he walked. The other two dogs present ignored him completely.

"When Elizabeth said she got dogs, I thought she meant two."

"There's five." Wes muttered. "Not including Lavender and Strawberry." The familiars. Lavender was nice enough, but Strawberry unnerved him, and he had a feeling she knew it.

Wes points to the dogs in turn. "Matilda, Richie- though Liz calls him Lion sometimes, Lance, Allegheny but we actually call her Allie." He paused, looked around. "I don't know where Dalia, Lavender, or Strawberry is."  
••••  
They were sitting across from each other in the living room, talking when Ginny came in.

Her pink, lacy dress shows her shoulders, the lightest dusting of freckles covering them. She's carrying her shopping, including a box that probably contains fresh sewing to work on she picked up from a seamstress.

"You look nice in pink." Scott says before thinking.

Elizabeth's eyes flick towards him and she misses a step.

"Scott?"

After a second she smiles. "I didn't know you were coming. It's nice to see you again!"

Jesus, he forgot how nice her smile was.   
••••  
Wes hadn't realized how worried he'd been about Ginny until she smiled.

Her old smile, not the little polite smile she usually had. Sometimes, when he told a joke or brought her new fabric she would smile at him like that. Sometimes he could get her to laugh.

But she never smiled at him just because she saw him.

Wes knew then, that no matter how much his sister denied it, she was head over heels for Scott.

••••••••••••••  
 **May 3, 1854**  
Ginny tried to tell Scott that she loved him, to just come out and say it.

And he shrugged her off. She didn't even get to open her mouth before he made some excuse up to avoid her and she was left standing there in the middle of a party, all by herself.

Ginny stops trying after that.

Stops trying to get Scott to notice that Adela and Scarlett aren't the only girls in the family, that she isn't a little kid anymore. She tried, with the red lipstick and curls. Tried to show him she wasn't a desperate girl in boy's clothing that thought she was going to die anymore.

He didn't even notice anything different about her, and maybe that's what hurt the most. Or maybe he had realized what she was doing, and that was why he was avoiding her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virginia and Elizabeth come from Elizabeth I. Del's middle name is Maria for Maria Eleonora of Sweden. Maryland and Scott's middle name (Henry) comes from Henrietta Maria of France.
> 
> The Dogs: Matilda and Richie are named for British Monarchs: Empress Matilda and Richard the Lionheart. Lance is for Lancelot. Allegheny is sort of named after Wes: West Virginia was once known as Trans-Allegheny Virginia. Dalia is named for the proposed British Vandalia colony, which would have been in what is today West Virginia. 
> 
> Lavender and Strawberry were originally a joke: when I created the Virginias, Robin asked me if they were going to have flying bunny familiars too, and so we came up with Lavender and Strawberry, who are familiars but not bunnies.


	4. Chapter 4

**April 17, 1860**  
Daniel secedes. Then Drew, Flora, Josh, Scarlett, Ev, Austin.

Ginny knows her own referendum is coming up. She packs her things, and straightens her room up, and prepares for the fact that she might secede too.   
••••  
Ginny knows she is a coward.

She doesn't even have the guts to hand the Notification to America himself. She leaves the paper on the dining room table at America's seat.

The Notification of Secession is easy to write.

The apology to her twin is harder. She tucks the letter under the book Wes keeps on his nightstand. He'll find it eventually.

She wonders vaguely what this will do to them. The Notification is just a paper, they aren't truly separated until she crosses the border into the Confederacy. They have always been two halves of a whole, two representatives for one colony.

Everyone else is asleep, and it's so late it's early. Ginny slips into Sera's room.

Sera is asleep, her auburn curls spread out around her head.

Ginny pushes her hair back and brushes a kiss to her forehead. She leaves her bracelet on the nightstand, the nice one with the pearls Alfred had given her for her birthday one year.

It only takes her a little while to completely remove everything from her room. She'd been packing for days, little by little.

In a half hour, there's very little to say that this was ever her room. Her star goes into the library.

Her violin, the raggedy stuffed cardinal, and her stripe, she stares at for a while.

Then she picks up the violin, tip-toeing across the hallway, where she opens Scott's door and silently slips her violin on top of the bookcase beside the door. She doesn't look at the lanky, blonde-haired form sprawled on the bed.

The stripe goes into Wes's room, placed beside the blue one on his dresser. She looks at the cardinal on his nightstand, identical to her own- a matched set, and sticks her own into her bag.

She slips her rucksack on, and then pulls the strap of her rifle over her shoulder. Even now, the weight of her rifle is oddly comforting.

The front door squeaks as she opens it, and she freezes.

But no one wakes up, and with one last parting glance, she disappears into the night.   
••••  
The pain hits as soon as she crosses the border into the Confederacy.

Thankfully, she doesn't fall out of her saddle, and her horse keeps going.   
••••  
Scott had never considered the possibility that Ginny would leave, even though he should have.

He sits on her bed with his head in his hands.

••••••••••••••  
**April 25, 1861**  
A week after Ginny leaves, he finds her violin on top of his bookcase.

The one he had given her for Christmas all those years ago.

He nearly starts crying, holding the violin to his chest.

••••••••••••••  
**April 30, 1861**  
Wes punches Scott for trying to hand Ginny's violin off to Kendall.

••••••••••••••  
**July 11, 1861**  
Elizabeth hadn't prepared herself for this.

Scott's eyes were incredulous as he stared across the field at her. Stared at her gray uniform, her short hair, the gun in her hands.

Scott shook his head and took a step back. Then another.

Then he disappeared behind a crowd of navy-clad soldiers.

••••••••••••••  
**July 16, 1861**  
Scott can't bring himself to read the letters Elizabeth sends.

He wonders what Wesley does with the ones Elizabeth must send him- does he read them, or return them unopened like Scott does?

He wonders what Sera would do with her letters, if he didn't intercept them. Elizabeth writes one every week for her, and he returns them, just as he does with his own. Sera never knows about the letters Elizabeth writes.

He almost feels guilty, until he remembers that she left them- in the dead of the night no less. She'd made her own bed.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**October 22, 1861**  
Ginny and Caden have certain things in common. The first, and most important, is that they are both in love with people who are not in love with them.

She's becoming detached from her emotions, becoming hollow. She isn't sure if sure prefers the crippling sadness or the burning anger or the unsettling nothingness. Caden is the opposite: too much emotion all the time.

It would be almost clinical, the first time they kiss, if it weren't for the fact that Caden is mostly French and couldn't kiss without some type of passion. When they sleep together, it's all pent up emotion and the desire to forget about wanting something you can never have.

After, they talk to each other. Never about the war, about the people they cannot have, about what they left behind in the North. They talk about inconsequential things like instruments and music and books.

And somehow, they manage to keep each other from falling completely apart.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**November 12, 1861**  
Caden keeps his hair slightly long, and he likes it when she french braids it because it turns out he's awful at it. He's the only state in the house besides Scarlett who can remember how Ginny likes her tea.

Caden is sort of something like a friend, and Ginny isn't really sure what to do with that.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**May 31, 1862**  
Ginny let herself lean against the wall, and then sink to the ground.

She didn't even want to look at her ruined right thigh, the pain was enough of an indication of what the shrapnel had done to it.

Ginny unslung her rifle from her shoulder, pulling it into her lap. She's fading too fast, her body attempting to heal itself and knocking her out in the process.

She can feel her siblings running around in the chaos of the battle, and prays that whichever one finds her is on her side.   
••••  
"Goddamn, Ginny." After a few tries, she manages to get her eyes open enough to see Timothy, with his hair falling into his face, and Caden.

Caden's eyes flicker towards the battle as cannon fire echoes around them.

"Couldn't have picked a better place to pass out." Tim mutters, pulling one of her arms and wrapping it around his shoulder.

He pulls her to her feet, and it hurts  _so fucking much._

Why hasn't it healed?

"Shrapnel." Tim says.  _Right, she knew that._

"Come on, Ginny, let's go home." Caden says as he slings her gun and knapsack over one shoulder, her arm over the over.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**April 23, 1863**  
Evangeline's lip is busted and Caden's hands are shaking with rage.

Ginny isn't fond of Evangeline, but Evangeline is a  _state_. There will never come a day that Ginny will think Evangeline deserves what Jackson puts her through.

She wraps her hand over Caden's fist, her hand barely covering it halfway.

None of them could afford to interfere with Jackson. He is a nation forged in war and discord, unshakable, and they are states being hurt more by this war than he is. Jackson is an enigma, a southern gentleman with equal measures of charm and cruelty. He scares all of them.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**May 1, 1863**  
Ginny is familiar with the look in someone's eyes that says they're about to run. It's the one she saw in her own eyes when she seceded.

Evangeline has it in hers.

She's gone before the week is over.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**June 20, 1863**  
Wes gets his star, and then he comes home and drinks two bottles of rum.

Scott finds him in Ginny's room, sitting on the foot of the bed, his star tossed carelessly on the mattress behind him.

Wes raises the bottle of rum. "To statehood." He snorts and then chugs a fourth of the bottle.

Scott sits beside him. "I miss her too."

Wes raises an eyebrow. "Why? You've only been avoiding her for what, a decade now? Sending her letters back as some big screw you?"

"You couldn't understand."

Wes laughs, a bitter noise. "I couldn't understand. You know, every time you do something, I had to pick up the pieces and put them back together. You ignore her for months on end after the battle of Long Island, and yeah, I know exactly what you and Gin did, and I have to keep her from having a nervous breakdown. You avoid her for an entire decade and she throws herself into becoming a perfect southern belle and I had to live with it. Either stop running away and tell her you like her or stop messing with her."

"I don't like her like that."

Wes shot him a look. "Right." He shook his head, swallowed the rest of the bottle, and left Scott sitting there.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**April 9, 1865**  
Scott sees a flash of blond hair blue-green eyes in a gray uniform and turned.

Ginny stands with the loose grouping of her men. Her hands clutch at her gun, and he realizes that if she wanted, she could do serious damage before they forced her surrender.

And he wouldn't be able to point his gun at her.

Elizabeth's gun thuds to the ground.

Scott breathes again. He's moving before his head has a chance to tell him it's a bad idea. He pulls her into hug. "Lizzy."

Their men must think they're insane- a yankee and a confederate hugging.

"I have to go back." Ginny says softly. Scott stiffens beside her. If she went back, she might not come home. This surrender could mean nothing.

She looks up. "I will come back. Tell Sera to start drafting a new Statehood acceptance paper." Elizabeth presses a chaste kiss to his cheek and Scott has to fight to remember to breathe.

"I'm coming home." She whispers.

He nods, slowly.

Elizabeth slips away unnoticed, like she was never there.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**April 11, 1865**  
It's almost like when she seceded and packed her things, except this time she glad to be living.

She kisses Caden on the cheek and leaves him her rapier. "I want this back, someday, alright?"

He grins and offers her a mocking salute.


	5. Chapter 5

**May 15, 1865**  
Scott doesn't realize how angry he is that Ginny had left until the war is over and then he can't bring himself to talk to her without snapping.   
••••  
Ginny cries when she realizes she can't find the stuffed cardinal, one of the few things she and West still shared.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**June 3, 1865**  
Sera approaches her a month later.

Her eyes are hurt.

"Why didn't you ever write to me? You wrote to West."

Ginny frowns. "But I did. You always sent them back unopened."

Sera shakes her head, and now her eyes are confused and a little hopeful. "I never got any letters."

"I wrote them. I still have them, I think."  
••••  
Sera starts crying when Ginny brings her the box of letters- one every week for the duration of the war.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**June 4, 1865**  
Scott doesn't know why West is glaring at him, but Ginny didn't come down for dinner.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**June 7, 1865**  
Wes holds her when the ache of military rule burns in her bones, as she sobs and bites her lip so she doesn't cry out, rocking her and singing old lullabies until the burn settles into a gentler pain.

She does the same for him when their separation gets to him.  
••••  
Elizabeth is asleep, head in Wes's lap as he brushes his fingers through her hair when there's a knock on his door. Lavender and Strawberry are curled into each other at the foot of the bed.

"Come in." Wes says quietly.

He's surprised when Caden opens the door, leaning against the frame.

He nods toward Liz. "Is she alright?"

Wes considers it. "As alright as she can be, I think."

Caden nods, moving forward.

Hesitantly, he sets something small and red down on the bed beside West.

Liz's cardinal stuffed animal. The twin to his own.

"I asked around the South. I know she was really upset about losing it." Caden shrugs. "Turns out it had gotten mixed into the Carolinas clothes or something."

 **••••••••••••••**  
**September 11, 1865**  
Ginny's surprised when Scott starts talking to her again.

Of course, she forgives him. She always does.

West, however, is pissed.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**October 17, 1865**  
Scott throws an arm over Ginny's shoulders, and she jumps, then winces.

"You okay?" He questions worriedly.

She nods, gives a polite smile. "It's nothing."

Scott's eyes narrow, and he presses a hand to her side.

Almost immediately, Ginny doubles over in pain.

Her pain tolerance had gone down drastically via the Reconstruction.

" _Nothing, huh_?" He repeats, pulling at the hem of her shirt, and she lets him.

He sucks in a breath. The wound is vicious looking. It extends about halfway under the right side of her ribcage on her front and back. At the moment, it's bleeding.

"How?" He wants to hunt down whoever did this. Doesn't matter that Ginny will heal up fine, that she won't die.

"West has the same thing on his left side." She hisses out as he prods the edges.

It's only then that he realizes that,  _yes_ , Wes has the same thing on his left side. That if the Virginias stood side-by-side, the wounds would match up, trailing from one to the other.

The West Virginia Secession is permanently etched on both of them.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**January 4, 1866**  
Sometimes she gets flashbacks from the war, or nightmares.

Usually West talks about them with her- but he isn't there, he's meeting with Kendall and Cordelia about something.

So she goes to Scott.   
••••  
Ginny finds him in the library.

Scott looks up when she sits beside him. "Can we talk?"

Scott nods.

Ginny picks at a loose thread in her skirt. "I keep dreaming about Spotsylvania and usually Wes talks with me about it but..."

 _But he's away at the moment_. Scott's throat closes up.

He remembers that battle- how bloody it was. 2,725 killed on the Union side.

How many of those deaths had been Ginny's fault? He'd seen her fight during the revolution. He knew what kind of damage she could do with a weapon.

" _Liz_ ,  _I_ - I'm sorry. I  _can't_."

Ginny blinks. "Oh- It's alright, I understand."

 **••••••••••••••**  
**January 7, 1866**  
When West gets back, his sister is a mess.

There are dark bags under her eyes and she's spiking her tea with Alfred's stash of imported Turkish death coffee and it's obvious she's been crying.

" _Hey_." He grabs his sister's wrist, pulling her towards him. West brushes his thumbs over the bags under her eyes. "What's wrong?"

She shakes her head.

"Lizzy.  _East_.  _Please_. I'm worried about you. Please, tell me what's wrong."

She breaks, tears falling. "I keep dreaming about Spotsylvania and it won't  _stop West why won't it just stop_."

Wes pulls his sister into a tight hug. "Oh, love, I don't know." He strokes her hair. "I don't know. Come on, you need to take a nap. I promise I'll stay right beside you. I promise, Liz. I won't leave you."

 **••••••••••••••**  
**June 5, 1870**  
Ginny had thought-  _so goddamn foolishly, so naïvely_ \- that maybe Scott would want her.

That the way he had said her name at Appomattox  _meant something_. That the way he had crushed her body to his had  _meant something, anything._

Apparently not. Not when Scott had spent the Fourth hitting on Hadley.

Wes is the one that comforts her, like always. She cries, and Wes lets her, even though her tears stain his shirt.

She's drowned, gotten shot and stabbed and had so much shrapnel dug out of her it's not funny. She's been beaten and bruised but nothing hurt the way this does.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**October 31, 1892**  
It's Halloween, and even though its been nearly three decades since the civil war, their circumstances haven't changed. Caden kisses back when Ginny leans over to press a chaste kiss to his mouth, and it isn't like they have anything to lose.

"One more time?" Caden offers.

Ginny shrugs. "Parties aren't really my thing anyway."  
••••  
Strangely, when she wakes up she doesn't regret the night before.

Caden's arms are curled around her waist, his face buried in her neck.

"Gin, stop moving." Caden groans. She could feel his breath hot against her skin. "'T's too early." His nose brushes her collarbone as he moves into a more comfortable position.

"It's ten in the morning."

"See? Too early."

"Caden..." She tries to get out from under the blankets and accidentally elbows him in the process.

He sighs. "Way to ruin the cuddly mood. Hm. Guess we'll have to fix that."

"How so?" Caden traces the tattoo in the crook of her elbow, the one of two cardinals her and Wes had gotten that summer. [[x]](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/607423068470234339/)

"Wanna go again? I promise to make it worth your while~"

Ginny snorts. "Sometimes, I forget how  _french_  you are."

Caden raises an eyebrow and smirks.

Elizabeth shakes her head as she starts to get up. "Caden, that wasn't an invitation-"

She laughs as he tackles her back down in a flurry of sheets.

It doesn't take long after that for Caden to break into laughter too.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**January 11, 1897**  
Five states are celebrating their birthdays now, but Ginny can't be bothered to remember which ones at the moment, when Scott is flirting with Hadley again. She leans against the porch railing, making sure she isn't in anyone's way.

Her only consolation is that Adrien looks  _pissed_.

Caden sits down on the steps beside her. "I wonder, sometimes, if I only want him because I can't have him."

He doesn't have to ask who she's talking about. He leans his head back after handing her a wine glass, the good stuff from Cali's stash. "It's like drowning, but you just can't get it over with and die already." She doesn't say that she prefers rum. He knows already, but rum is a lot harder to explain away at a birthday party than a little wine.

"Yeah."

He clinks their glasses together. "To  _La Douleur Exquise_." He mutters.

Ginny tilts her head. "What's that mean?"

Caden smiles at her, and it's unspeakably sad. "The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can't have."  
••••  
Scott finally catches sight of Ginny, and tries to keep from flat-out staring, because  _since when do Ginny and Caden get along???_

And when Caden hands Ginny a wine glass, and she takes it, his eyebrows furrow.

He doesn't hear Hadley snickering before she goes to talk to someone else, only hears Ginny's bright, pretty laugh.

Scott does see Caden muttering something to her, and Ginny smacking his arm.

Jealousy burns white-hot in him.

 **••••••••••••••**  
**June 17, 1898**  
Wes and Ginny stare at each other across the table. Caden scratches the back of his head nervously as he stands. "Yeah.... I'm just gonna go-"

Wes doesn't break eye contact with his sister when he points at him. "Sit your ass back down."

Caden sits. Wes looks away. "Okay, one of you is going to explain, because I think I just suffered mental scarring and I'd like to know  _why._ "  
••••  
"What?" Wes leans over the table. "I'm so fucking confused. So you-" He points at Ginny, "are in love with Scott, obviously, and Caden's in love with-?"

Ginny opens her mouth to answer and Caden shoots her a warning glare.

Wes rolls his eyes. "Right. And you're both what? Friends with benefits?"

Ginny grimaces and crosses her arms. "You make it sound bad."

West rolls his eyes again. "Ginny, most of our siblings have done worse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cardinal tattoo is just below the inside of their elbows; Ginny is on her left arm and Wes's is on his right.


	6. Chapter 6

**September 17, 1898**  
"Puerto Rico is hitting on Sera."

Ginny rolls her eyes. "You burst into my room to tell me that?"

"He's flirting with Sera!" Scott exclaims.

"So? Sera's a big girl. She can handle herself."

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **September 3, 1910**  
It's the third day of the North America meeting, of having to deal with not only states, but every other non-nation personification on the continent and Ginny is tired.

She tired of the expectations and the weight of being near-perfect and having to deal with all the issues popping up.

She sits with Caden during the lunch break. Caden goes over her notes and shakes his head at her. "I am so glad I'm considered one of the irresponsible ones."

She gives him a half-hearted glare.

He kisses her, and she punches his shoulder. "You're just trying to kiss because you think it'll make me less stressed and less bitchy when you have to present after lunch."

Caden shrugs. "Yeah, but I like kissing people, too."

Ginny rolls her eyes, but she deepens the kiss when Caden leans over again.

Maybe making out in the courtyard of the meeting building isn't her best idea, but she's too impatient to move somewhere else and Caden is a  _damn_  good kisser and she can't be bothered to remember why they shouldn't when he's trailing open-mouthed kisses down her throat.

"No marks." She gasps. Caden rolls his eyes, soothing the red spot with his tongue anyway so there won't be one.

And they were both too distracted to see Cait freeze and back away slowly.

By the time lunch is over, everyone knows.   
••••  
Scott tries to catch Ginny's eyes across the table, because he doesn't know if the rumors are true or not.

The rumors that Ginny and Caden were all over each other during lunch.

Caden, slouched in his seat farther down the table, gave no indication if they were true or not, even if he was asked.

Ginny, on the other hand, kept her head down. Wes sat on her other side, and he was very carefully not looking at his sister- yet the notes they were passing back and forth said that they were silently fighting.   
••••  
"Is it true?"

Ginny pauses where she had been packing away her stuff into her bag, a single folder clutched in her hands.

Scott looks at her, trying to figure out if her uniform is more wrinkled than usual, trying to see if she has any hickeys, if her mouth is kiss-swollen.

"Is what true?"

"Is it true about you and Caden?"

Ginny looks up at him, and he notes that her eyes are leaning more towards green, today, he thinks.

"Why do you care?" She huffs, and finishes packing up in the time it takes him to think about it.

By the time he opens his mouth, she's gone.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **October 31, 1910**  
Ginny spends the Halloween party that year smushed in between West and Caden on Oregon's tiny couch, laughing, slightly-drunk, and doesn't think about Scott at all. Caden starts pressing kisses to her cheek after a few too many glasses of whatever alcohol he had been handed and West snorts and calls them both lightweights.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **February 30, 1912**  
Scott collapses down on the couch beside Ginny.

She doesn't bat an eye.

"Sera and Leo are dating."

Ginny keeps proofreading her economic report. "I know."

"It's crazy- wait, what?"

She shrugs. "They've been dating since September. They're not very subtle."

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **November 11, 1915**  
A Canadian soldier stops in front of him, and it only takes a moment Scott to recognize Elizabeth, even when her femininity is hidden beneath baggy fatigues and her hair is short and she's skinnier from a shortage of military rationing.

He finds himself missing her prim, pretty, proper dresses and curves.

Elizabeth hands him a package and leaves.

Looks like he got the weekly stateside package.

There's a letter, an orange, about a pound of venison jerky- probably from Wyoming or Montana- and there's also a pack of socks.

He opens the letter, gets a few short  _we miss you-s_  from the states who didn't ship out. He also gets a few photographs. One of Charlie and Sol on their birthday- they have the same one, February 14, just different years. One of Addy flashing peace signs. One of little bitty Hawaii cheesing at the camera.

He smiles at the pictures, and resolves to pass them onto to whichever state he sees next.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **March 11, 1921**  
Scott figures it out during a meeting.

How long has it been since he's talked to Elizabeth? He can't remember.

He's been replaced as best friend. By Caden.

It doesn't sit well with him.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **November 15, 1924**  
Ginny wakes up with a pounding headache and an awful hangover.

Wes laughs at her, then winces.  _Ha, looks like she's not the only one with a hangover._

She swings her feet over the edge of the couch and manages one step before she feels pain on her right thigh.

She sits back down, pulling at the edge of her dress- one of the flapper-type ones, something she's not used to wearing.

Wes whistles. "Is that a tattoo?"

Ginny makes a peculiar squeaky noise.

He laughs. "It is! You have a tramp stamp! A butterfly, no less!"

Ginny wants to die of embarrassment right there.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **December 18, 1924**  
She loved the tradition of going to the Savannah Christmas Cotillion with the other southern states.

Call her old-fashioned, but she likes the long dresses and gloves and petticoats.

The corset, Ginny could do without.

She can feel her skirts swishing around her feet as she walks, low heels clicking.

Caden tells her she looks nice, and dances with her for a song before Evangeline, winking, cuts in to borrow him for a while. She flushes when Evangeline tells Josh to  _get his scrawny ass over there and dance with Liz because she was looking too pretty to just stand there_.

She laughs and dance with all the male southerners and even a few of the female ones- Scarlett had gotten annoyed with the boys at one point and asked her very calmly if she would like to dance with someone who had some sense before she left and Evangeline made a point of dancing with everyone. David had been very cordial and told her she looked pretty with her hair like that, Daniel told her ridiculous jokes until she laughed, Tim had stepped on her toes until a laughing Kendall had pulled him away, Austin had asked about her dogs after informing her that she could probably play better than the violinist in the band and  _had she ever considered a career as a concert violinist?,_ and Drew had seemed mildly confused but danced with her anyway.

And she's happy, so completely happy for the first time in a while.


	7. Chapter 7

**July 10, 1925**  
There are no words that describe the horror of the claustrophobic trenches in the Great War.

Even now, even after the war is long over, Scott can't stand small, dark places.

He knows some of his other siblings have gained similar issues. Scott has seen Oliver flinch at fireworks on the Fourth, he has seen Callie break down in the midst of the yearly joint FBI/CIA/Homeland Security gun qualifications.

Scott thinks they all had issues before the war. Sam hasn't done well with people coming up behind her since the 1820s, and they pretend they don't see the fear sometimes when she jumps. Nate still probably has some issues left over from the Civil War, and Scott remembers the day that Addison cut her finger and just stared at it for the longest time.

So when Ginny falls asleep in the library on a rainy day and wakes up sobbing, he understands. Scott sits on one of the stupidly overstuffed couches in the far corner of the library with Ginny when he notices her tears.

After the first hour, they had dragged the couch towards the window, the big floor to ceiling one that takes up most of the exterior wall, and just sit and watch the rain.

He doesn't ask about her dream, and she doesn't tell.

Thirty minutes later, Ginny puts her head on his shoulder and doesn't move away when he starts to run his fingers through her hair. When she falls asleep, Scott finally notices the handful of his shirt held tight in her fist.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **March 6, 1942**  
Ginny is somewhere on the Pacific Front, but Scott doesn't know where. The letters the states on the European front get from the Pacific front are heavily redacted.

A government official comes, asks for Marisol one day.

Sol screams when they tell her that a fighter plane went down and Nathaniel ( _her brother, her friend_ ) is MIA, that he has likely become a prisoner of war.

After that, they are afraid.

Scott is thankful every time one of Ginny's letters finds its way to him. He treasures seeing his name written in Ginny's strange, beautiful almost-calligraphy.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **July 15, 1942**  
In June, the letters stop.

Scott corners Wes one day, when he's fresh coming off of patrol.

And Wes says eight words, looking like grief and anger are waging war in his eyes.  _The USS Yorktown was sunk by Japanese submarine._

Scott doesn't have to ask how he knows. Elizabeth and Wesley, East and West, once.  _One for the mountains and one for the sea_ , Alfred used to say, and ruffle both of the twin's blonde hair.

Wes knows because it doesn't matter that they are separate  _now_ , Ginny and him were once one and the same- they felt what the other felt, in the way of twins. So he knew, the second Ginny stopped drawing air into her lungs, and he would know the second she breathed again.

A letter finally comes in July, and Scott breathes easier.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **May 7, 1945**  
The first time he's heard Elizabeth's voice in five years is on V-E Day.

Alfred smuggles him into one of the military phone rooms, and he calls Ginny immediately.

Her voice cracks over whatever ship's phone she using, but he listens intently to her. Scott closes his eyes and leans back against the wall, the phone pressed against his ear.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **June 25, 1963**  
Ginny's sitting on the porch swing beside him, and Scott is trying not to think about how easy it would be to slide his hand over three inches and tangle their fingers together.

"You know, this is my 175th statehood anniversary?" She says absentmindedly.

Scott swallows. "Lizzy, I think I-"

The porch light flickers on, and a moment later, Lani and Sasha come out, holding jars.

Ginny shoots them an amused look. Sasha shrugs. "We're going to catch fireflies."

Ginny shakes her head as they leave, and then turns to Scott. "You were going to say something?"

Scott just shakes his head.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **January 1, 1967**  
West watches as his sister's heart breaks.

Across the room, Scott kisses Hadley as the clock strikes midnight.

Beside him, Elizabeth looks like she's going to cry.

It's a split second decision on whether he wants to punch Scott or comfort his twin. He'd told Scott he needed to stop playing with Liz like this- acting all affectionate one moment and then ignoring her.

"Come on, Lizzy." Wesley tugs on his sister's arm, and leads her away to the den where he plops them both down on one of Flora's couches.

When Liz starts to cry, he doesn't care that her tears are making his shoulder uncomfortably wet.

When the tears stop, Elizabeth sits up.

If her eyes weren't red-rimmed and puffy, his sister would be the perfect model of beauty.

He's never cared much about his appearance, but Elizabeth has.

"Let's go get you cleaned up." He whispers.   
••••  
Wes sits on the edge of the bathtub as Elizabeth reapplies her makeup.

Her purse or whatever the hell it is is on the counter, full of makeup and hair stuff. He wonders how she managed to fit so much in such a little purse.

He stares in wonder as she puts on her mascara. "How do you not stab yourself in the eye?"

"Practice." She sits the mascara down and picks up an eyeliner pencil.

Once that's done, she picks up her eyeshadow.

"How long did it take to find eyeshadow that matches your dress?"

Elizabeth shrugs. "None at all when you use magic."

Wes snorts. Only Ginny would use magic to match makeup to her outfit.

His sister fixes her headband and turns to him. "How do I look?"

 _Like someone who wasn't crying fifteen minutes ago_ , he wants to say.

"Beautiful." He tells her, and watches as she slings her purse over her shoulder. She holds out her hand to him, and he takes it.   
••••  
Scott kisses Hadley, and some part of him wishes it was Ginny.

Hadley pulls away when the clock stops chiming midnight.

Scott doesn't stop her when she walks away.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **January 7, 1967**  
Elizabeth leans against the railing of her red-and-white striped lighthouse.

She shivers, pulls her coat around her tighter, and looks towards the ocean. It stretches out in front of her, endless waves of blue. She's always found comfort in the ocean.

Ginny closes her eyes, takes a long breath.

And when she opens her eyes, she lets him go.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **October 31, 1970**  
He's drunk enough to think that kissing Ginny is a good idea. It's probably a good thing that Wes drags her away to play blackjack with a few of the other states before he can.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **May 24, 1977**  
Caden presses a kiss to her cheek, more of a joke than him actually making a pass at her, and she laughs.   
••••  
"Are you and Caden together?" Scott asks after the meeting.

Ginny shuffles her papers together. "Does it matter?" She steps around him. "I have somewhere to be."

"Elizabeth."

She stops and turns around. "What?"

"Are you or not?"

She huffs. "Why does it matter to you what I do, whom I may or may not be dating? You've never cared before. Do you have a bet or something?"

That stung a little, and Scott snapped out a reply before he could properly think about it. " _Because I love you!_ "

She drops her binder.

Ginny scrambles to pick it up, and then runs.

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **May 25, 1976**  
She goes to Wes, and he makes her a cup of tea and makes her sit down and explain.

"Scott- he said he loved me.  _I don't know what to do._ "

 **••••••••••••••**  
 **May 27, 1976**  
The universe hates her.

When she finally does go home, there's Scott sitting on her porch steps, like a bad penny.

He gives her an apologetic look. "I called."

"I was at West's."

Scott nods. "Can we talk?"

Ginny's already tired of today. "I guess."  
••••  
"You ran away." Scott says, and that's around the time Ginny decides to dig out the rum West brought over that time.

He watches her warily as she pours herself half a glass. She rolls her eyes. "Do you want some?"

He seems to consider it before he shakes his head.

Ginny shrugs, and takes a sip. "I've spent most of my life trying to get over you, and you say you love because I was  _snappy_ at you. I was surprised. I ran. Your turn."

Scott's eyes widen. "...Repeat that first part."

Ginny sighs and takes another sip. "I've loved you since we were colonies. Always." She clarified when Scott opened his mouth. "I tried to get over it. I thought I was finally over it. And then you go and say that."

Scott rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't really know how long. After the civil war? Maybe before. I don't know. I was pretty angry during it."

Ginny gave him a bitter smile. "Yeah, I know. I have a whole box of letters to prove it."

Scott looked down. "I'm sorry about that. And keeping Sera's letters from her."

"That's the first time you've apologized for it."

He looked over at her.

"I forgave you for everything you did, no matter how much it hurt. When you ignored me for a whole year during the revolution. When you wouldn't speak to me for months after the civil war. When even after that, when I needed you, when I was having nightmares every night and needed someone to talk to, you made excuses and left. You were supposed to be my best friend."

"You left in the middle of night. No goodbye. Just left."

Ginny gave him a look. "That's not the same."

"Yeah? Give me a reason."

"We don't have a choice on secession. I knew it would hurt more if I said goodbye, and I wasn't brave enough to look Alfred in the eye and tell him I was leaving." She shook her head. "I never intentionally hurt you, Scott."

The implication being that Scott had hurt her. Scott was silent.

Ginny looked away. "This isn't healthy. I don't think we're good for each other." 

Scott exhales shakily. "One chance, Liz. Just one. Let's try this, just once. If you still think it's a bad idea, we'll never speak of it again.

In all these years, she's never heard him sound quite like that. She caves. "Just one time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should have been done a few days ago, but I got distracted and ended up writing Roller Derby! Mindy instead oops.


End file.
